STEVENSON HALL HHH HASH #120


Date:  March 29, 1987

Weather:  sun, warm

Set by: Franchina, Trunko 

Runners:  Effross, the Geezer, Van Fossen, Hiser, Courtney, Brueschke, Havens, 
Dilley, Quackenbush, Vidolin, Francis family,Luther, Hirsch, Smith, Pushner;  
Rookies: Terri McCart, Amy Beth Treciokas, Debby Patton, Jean Marie Houghton, Dan 
Sajewski, Terry Sajewski

"First to Cooler"  Joe Burns, Hiser 


Description, comments:  Bad signs at the start, or on the way to the start, of this first 
interstate run for the SHHHH.  The Francis family, all four of them plus assorted friends 
and hash groupies followed up nicely on their "out-to-lunch" performance at the 
legendary 100th by getting lost on the way to the start.  Not bad.  The setters rescued 
them, which set the tone for this Hasch of the Verloren, as old Germany Smith, who 
played third base for Düsseldorf in the Hanseatic League, would have called it.
The first (but not last) rescue over, we drove on (and on....and on....) amidst jokes about 
starting as far off as Washington's Crossing.  Surely not...  

One expects many things from two first time setters-chaos, Weinstein microdots, too 
long or too short a run, generalized ineptitude.  We got none of these, but rather a hash 
of exquisite sadism -- these two clearly have the proper instincts.  We started off, 
scattering the usual bovine park walkers, who wanting nothing more than a quiet 
Sunday bosk in the park and got instead the daunting sight of 25 crazed and yelling 
hashers, even more hyperkinetic than usual after the endless caravan from Princeton.  
It's no surprise what these poor common folk did when confronted with the SHHHH, but 
more of that later.  The run started with a mile + loop back to the start, the kind of 
maneuver one expects from some veteran hasher, jaded by too many sets and 
permanently in his cups from too many down downs.  And it was pulled off without a 
hitch.  Why did no one search out the start more carefully?  Kaufman would 
have...Baker would have....Wachspress might have.  We didn't.

Back to the start it was, and then off in the other direction, arriving at the 30 minute 
mark at the mighty Delaware.  At the 60 minute mark most of us were still there.  Luther, 
Courtney and Smith crossed the Delaware to find Old George, getting ready to cross in 
the other direction.  George, himself a veteran of the Valley Forge HHH, joined in, but 
was no better than the rest of us at finding a way out of the maze of marks.  We ran it 
forward, we ran it backward.  Courtney found an "F", Duncan Francis found a trail to 
nowhere.  Dilley checked an obvious path and missed the way out.   He tried again with 
the geezer's help (?) and still they missed the marks.  As Smith and Jones stood on a 
check, debating the various possible interpretations with Rabbinic intensity,  it was Old 
George who saw it.  Down the twice-checked trail we went and there were the marks, 
missed by the incompetent Dilley.  The Geezer can only be pitied; his eyes must be 
going (certainly the rest of him left long ago), but for Dilley there is nothing but shame.  
Among the missing were Luther, last seen in PA, Quackenbush, Brueschke, Hiser, 
Effross and Van Fossen.  Effross had disappeared while trying to swim the canal.  We 
assumed he had dissolved.  Woods running, stream leaping, "Bill" stops, all led us to 
the edge of an EFM, where we found Pushner and Dilley wandering in a daze, unwilling 
to cross the field.  Of course crossing was the right thing to do, and there on the other 
side were several things.   Some were expected --the cooler for instance.  Some were 
not expected--Hiser, Van Fossen and Effross, who had absorbed the canal rather than 
dissolving in it, and a State Trooper, the seeming reincarnation of Ossifer Obie himself 
(see #95) or, perhaps, Ray the Guard (see Evy's Abortion, # 79).

Hiser, et al. had wearied of the endless discussion in the park and had set out at 
random, which should have kept them running until nightfall, but instead led them right 
onto marks.  The Trooper had been alerted by the frightend Park visitors that  "a strange 
ritual" was going on and had set out to investigate, regardless of the personal danger.  

In the rest trickled in.  Luther and Quackenbush had made their way back to the start 
and the bewildered Brueschke was found wandering in a daze muttering something 
about checkmarks.  After some debate we scooped them up and left for Princeton.  In 
the confusion,  George was lost.

Next Hashes:  

Sunday, April 5, 2 p.m., Stevenson 91, MJ, III, Van Fossen set.

Sunday, April 12, 2 p.m., Stevenson 91,  Courtney, Pushner set.

Sunday, April 19, 2 p. m., Stevenson 91, C. Havens, G. Washington and E. Bunny set 
the Easter Keg Hunt